Chairs: Felicitas Acosta (National University of General Sarmiento, Argentina) & Euan Auld (Education University of Hong Kong, SAR, China)
Inquiring into the curriculum means asking fundamental questions about knowledge and its transmission. It is widely recognised that curriculum is never neutral; it manifests both explicitly and implicitly through what is taught, how it is taught, and also through what remains hidden. Comparative education has long examined curriculum through traditional lenses, such as cross-national or regional comparisons of curricular content and structure. More recent approaches, however, have analysed how transnational discourses shape curriculum within the global education architecture.
This Working Group particularly is particularly interested in contributions that explore curriculum, teaching, and learning along two complementary lines of inquiry, focusing on: (i) the shifting conditions of contemporary societies and the challenges these pose for research, and (ii) how researchers in comparative education are adapting and innovating in studies of curriculum across multiple scales and in the context of entangled worlds in transition.
We welcome contributions that interrogate forces shaping curriculum globally, such as i) The narrowing of curriculum through neoliberal regimes of standardisation, accountability, and metrics (for examples, the OECD’s PISA and other ILSAs); ii) The growing influence of educational technologies and AI, redefining not only what is learned, but how and where learning happens; iii) The climate crisis, which calls for new curricular thinking around sustainability, care, and planetary futures; iv) Concerns around mental health and well-being, highlighting the emotional and relational dimensions of education; v) The global resurgence of nationalism, anti-intellectualism, and far-right populism, which threaten pluralism, critical inquiry, and inclusive educational spaces.
Finally, and from the above, the Working Group encourages future-oriented contributions that reimagine learning curriculum constructively within and beyond the conventional boundaries of modern schooling. These may include explorations of alternative ways of knowing and being, more-than-human worlds and collectives, decolonial perspectives, and speculative or participatory approaches to curriculum-making. The Working Group encourages submissions that engage with the following strands, including but not limited to the questions listed below:
1. Foundational Learning and Future Learning (Digital & Beyond)
- How are foundational skills and future competencies defined—and by whom?
- What visions of the future are embedded in current curricular reforms?
- Are foundational and future learning goals aligned, or are they in tension?
2. Hidden and Explicit Curriculum
- What norms, values, and power structures are embedded in curriculum content and delivery?
- How does the hidden curriculum operate across different national or institutional contexts?
- What tools or methods can reveal the implicit functions of schooling?
3. Teaching and Learning
- How are pedagogical practices being shaped –or constrained– by global curriculum reforms?
- What alternatives exist to resist standardisation and reclaim teacher agency?
- How can comparative education re-centre pedagogy as a site of inquiry and transformation?
4. Schooling and Education
- What forms of learning are excluded or marginalised by traditional schooling models?
- How can curricula incorporate learning in non-school or informal spaces?
- What might curriculum look like in plural, more-than-human, or decolonial educational contexts?
5. Reimagining Curriculum Futures
- How can speculative or participatory methods help us envision curriculum differently?
- What contributions can comparative education make toward envisioning and constructing more equitable curricular futures?
This Working Group welcomes critical and comparative proposals that engage national systems and global education architectures, while addressing emerging issues, challenges, and opportunities for the field to open space for dialogue, debate, and collaborative exploration.